Discovery BoxIsaiah 9:18 
Context9:18 For 1 evil burned like a fire, 2
it consumed thorns and briers;
it burned up the thickets of the forest,
and they went up in smoke. 3
Isaiah 10:18
Context10:18 The splendor of his forest and his orchard
will be completely destroyed, 4
as when a sick man’s life ebbs away. 5
Isaiah 33:9
Context33:9 The land 6 dries up 7 and withers away;
the forest of Lebanon shrivels up 8 and decays.
Sharon 9 is like the desert; 10
Bashan and Carmel 11 are parched. 12
Isaiah 44:14
Context44:14 He cuts down cedars
and acquires a cypress 13 or an oak.
He gets 14 trees from the forest;
he plants a cedar 15 and the rain makes it grow.
1 tn Or “Indeed” (cf. NIV “Surely”). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
2 sn Evil was uncontrollable and destructive, and so can be compared to a forest fire.
3 tn Heb “and they swirled [with] the rising of the smoke” (cf. NRSV).
4 tn Heb “from breath to flesh it will destroy.” The expression “from breath to flesh” refers to the two basic components of a person, the immaterial (life’s breath) and the material (flesh). Here the phrase is used idiomatically to indicate totality.
5 tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. מָסַס (masas), which is used elsewhere of substances dissolving or melting, may here mean “waste away” or “despair.” נָסַס (nasas), which appears only here, may mean “be sick” or “stagger, despair.” See BDB 651 s.v. I נָסַס and HALOT 703 s.v. I נסס. One might translate the line literally, “like the wasting away of one who is sick” (cf. NRSV “as when an invalid wastes away”).
6 tn Or “earth” (KJV); NAB “the country.”
7 tn Or “mourns” (BDB 5 s.v. I אָבַל). HALOT 6-7 lists homonyms I אבל (“mourn”) and II אבל (“dry up”). They propose the second here on the basis of parallelism. See 24:4.
8 tn Heb “Lebanon is ashamed.” The Hiphil is exhibitive, expressing the idea, “exhibits shame.” In this context the statement alludes to the withering of vegetation.
9 sn Sharon was a fertile plain along the Mediterranean coast. See 35:2.
10 tn Or “the Arabah” (NIV). See 35:1.
11 sn Both of these areas were known for their trees and vegetation. See 2:13; 35:2.
12 tn Heb “shake off [their leaves]” (so ASV, NRSV); NAB “are stripped bare.”
13 tn It is not certain what type of tree this otherwise unattested noun refers to. Cf. ASV “a holm-tree” (NRSV similar).
14 tn Heb “strengthens for himself,” i.e., “secures for himself” (see BDB 55 s.v. אָמֵץ Pi.2).
15 tn Some prefer to emend אֹרֶן (’oren) to אֶרֶז (’erez, “cedar”), but the otherwise unattested noun appears to have an Akkadian cognate, meaning “cedar.” See H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena (SBLDS), 44-45. HALOT 90 s.v. I אֹרֶן offers the meaning “laurel.”
